Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies Activism & Outreach

You will be encouraged to take part in activism as part of the gender studies program. You may volunteer at places like local domestic violence shelters, anti-violence male coalitions, and organic local farms.

Senior capstone experience

Your senior capstone experience can take form as an individual project or internship that synthesizes what you have learned in the gender, sexuality, and women's major into a cohesive experience. Your senior capstone project can focus on research, or hands-on activism projects.

Hannah Altmann '13 conducted a semester-long Health Relationship class at the Iowa Juvenile Home under the Skylark Project with the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She worked with groups of 10-18 girls ages 12-17 using a curriculum based on Jackson Katz's bystander model. Her work included topics such as: defining healthy relationships, setting boundaries, and assertive communication. Hannah's capstone paper then situated this work within the literature on teen relationships and delinquency. Hannah said, "I really enjoyed the project—it was one thing to read the academic side of delinquency and then another to actually be confronted with it in a role of advocate and educator."

Feminist Symposium

The Cornell community seeks to encourage feminist and women's academic research. To promote this research, the program and the Third Wave Resource Group (TWRG) co-host a biannual Feminist Symposium. This symposium allows for students and professors to present their research, projects, and artwork that pertain specifically to feminist and women's issues, serving not only to educate the community but also to celebrate the hard work being done by Cornell students. During each symposium, TWRG and co-sponsoring organizations also host a keynote speaker. For the 2016 symposium, social justice and human rights activist Taté Walker gave a keynote speech titled Surviving Love, which placed Native women’s experiences in the context of historical and relational trauma. For the 2014 symposium, activist and author Daisy Hernández delivered a motivational and inspiring lecture to community members. 

Third Wave Resource Group

Third Wave Resource Group (TWRG) is a student organization that serves as an on-campus resource for activism and support for third wave feminism for all members of the Cornell community.